In order to cut costs down the road, the City Council is considering spending $90,000 on a performance audit to determine Mercer Island’s “leanness,” evaluate its operating budget and review its maintenance department, which has the largest operating budget in the city at $14.7 million.
Finance Director Chip Corder recommended recruiting two councilmembers to help determine the scope of the audit and hire a local government consultant.
Corder said that a “high level,” overarching assessment of the city would cost $15,000 and evaluate metrics — including staffing levels and total operating budget expenditures — relative to neighboring full-service cities including Bothell, Issaquah, Kirkland, Lynnwood and Redmond.
Councilmember Mike Cero said he was suspicious that such an assessment would justify a tax increase in 2016, and said that instead of a government consultant, Mercer Island should look to private industry cost-cutting approaches like Six Sigma.
“Consultants don’t save us money, they cost us money,” he said. “We should save taxpayers money through more efficient processes.”
Cero said that comparing Mercer Island to other cities is not “apples to apples.”
“You can get a fuji to a Rome,” Corder said. “You can get pretty close.”
The impetus of the audit came out of the City Council’s Planning Sessions in 2015. Looking at the budget forecast and upcoming deficits, staff presented an option to go to voters with a levy lid lift in 2016.
“Before we go to the voters and talk about revenue issues, we better be able to show that we took a very strong look at expenditures,” said Deputy Mayor Dan Grausz.
Grausz said that he sees opportunities to cut costs in the city’s vehicle fleet. Corder recommended a selective assessment of the maintenance department, which could cost $75,000.
Corder and the consultant would break down the staffing level by work teams, make recommendations based on industry best practices on how productivity could be improved and evaluate the number of fleet vehicles.
“I’m personally not interested in comparisons [with other cities]… The geography of the city really impacts the use of the vehicles,” Grausz said. “I would like to see the performance audit look specifically at our systems for replacing vehicles and identifying how to maintain vehicles.”
Councilmember Jane Meyer Brahm suggested tabling the discussion for another time, and using the $90,000 on other projects. She said that she had been involved in a company that was audited, and it can cause a morale issue.
Councilmember Debbie Bertlin said she was interested in “the efficiency factor and effectiveness factor.”
“It’s not only about cutting costs, but making sure we are delivering the right services at the right cost,” Bertlin said.
